Pogačar's big interview

Caley Fretz (0:00)

We've got this, you know, this massive change at EF.

Johnny Long (0:02)

If you're called Matt, watch out.

Caley Fretz (0:05)

Watch out.

Welcome back to Spin Cycle, everybody. I'm Kayley Fretz. Today on the show, Tadej Pogačar opens up, Charly Wegelius is out at EF, and Victor Lafay doesn't know if he's in or out. Let's talk about it. Welcome back to the show, Kit Nicholson, since we heard you first.

Kit Nicholson (0:31)

Sorry, I just, I mean, I'm just enjoying your slightly kind of confused, I don't know, trailing off there.

Caley Fretz (0:38)

Sometimes I read this for the first time as we start the podcast.

Johnny Long (0:42)

Definitely gives that vibe.

Caley Fretz (0:45)

I could read it. It's not long. I could read it beforehand, but you know what? I'm reading the rest of the run sheet to see what else we got to put in here. And then I, you know, that usually goes in last, right, Johnny?

Johnny Long (0:54)

Oh yeah.

Caley Fretz (0:55)

Welcome, Johnny.

Johnny Long (0:56)

I always just remember. Hi. Look, it could, the story could be that Victor Lafay is apprehensive about doing the Hokey Hokey.

Kit Nicholson (1:06)

Oh, he's just about to go there. Very good.

Johnny Long (1:08)

You know?

Kit Nicholson (1:09)

And we're in November.

Johnny Long (1:11)

Yeah.

Happy November. Happy All Saints Day over the weekend, everyone.

Caley Fretz (1:15)

I'm actually quite excited to talk about Victor Lafay later in the show, but we did kind of promise to start with Tadej Pogačar in a big interview that he did, well, came out in the last week over the weekend.

He doesn't do big interviews all that often. And yeah, but you know, the big media tend to get them when he does do one. So we also, he revealed quite a lot in this particular interview. What were the sort of highlights?

Kit Nicholson (1:48)

It was a kind of, I don't know, quite a nice interview to read, really. I mean, it was Chokka with quite a lot of, I don't know, mental and physical anguish, I think. Which, and so to say that that's a nice thing to read, it humanizes a person, right? When you see quotes like, I was really depressed and I didn't feel anything. I wasn't feeling anything and he's speaking mentally and psychologically in that sense. And that to a lot of people is quite relatable. And obviously, we are talking very different types of lives that we're all relating to. But yeah, this was an interview that started with memories of the crash that took him out of the voilet and the season two months ago.

Some experiences in the hospital which were quite troubling to read.

And then some later discoveries that actually he hadn't just broken one vertebra, but three, all stable and okay, and recovery on track and all that. But yeah, it's just some quite raw stuff from a guy who we're usually more familiar with seeing, I don't know, grinning on his indoor trainer. Like we have seen a couple of weeks after his crash, or even in the hospital stories, making faces at the camera saying still alive, just even before he had surgery. So we see that side of him, but we're also being shown a glimpse into something a bit deeper.

Johnny Long (3:12)

You mentioned about the slightly dodgy anecdote from his time at the hospital. So he's been taking an ambulance. He's like, I don't really, you know, I kind of am remembering, don't quite remember what was going on. But then he's like, well, I was just laying there and signing autographs for the doctors and nurses and taking photos, which sure, not every day Tadej Pogačar is in your accident emergency ward, but he's just a guy.

And maybe-

Kit Nicholson (3:37)

He's a guy who likes to wear, yeah. And he's a guy who also, who we know would choose to wear no photos, jersey rather than his world championship stripes.

Johnny Long (3:48)

That's in like, just when he's not, you know, severely concussed and broken bones. Yeah, when he's really vulnerable.

Kit Nicholson (3:52)

And we're talking, and what he was signing apparently was tatters of his sliced up red skin suit.

Johnny Long (3:59)

Oh my god.

Yeah, that's grim. That's really grim.

Kit Nicholson (4:01)

It's kind of odd. Yeah.

I mean, you know, maybe he was, maybe he was on the gas and air and he was a bit giggly because that happens. And he was like, and somebody said, as they were cutting up his skin suit, hey, what if you signed this? That'd be fun. And he's like, oh, yeah, so it might've been innocent and perfectly, you know, fine like that. But yeah, it's, you'd like to think he might be left alone.